Anatomy of a Tree
Anatomy of a Tree
The Inside Story
| A
|
The outer bark
is the tree's protection from the outside world. Continually
renewed from within, it helps keep out moisture in the rain,
and prevents the tree from losing moisture when the air is dry.
It insulates against cold and heat and wards off insect enemies. |
 |
| B |
The inner
bark, or "phloem", is pipeline through
which food is passed to the rest of the tree. It lives for only
a short time, then dies and turns to cork to become part of
the protective outer bark. |
| C |
The cambium
cell layer is the growing part of the trunk. It annually
produces new bark and new wood in response to hormones that
pass down through the phloem with food from the leaves. These
hormones, called "auxins", stimulate growth in cells.
Auxins are produced by leaf buds at the ends of branches as
soon as they start growing in spring. |
| D |
Sapwood
is the tree's pipeline for water moving up to the leaves. Sapwood
is new wood. As newer rings of sapwood are laid down, inner
cells lose their vitality and turn to heartwood. |
| E |
Heartwood
is the central, supporting pillar of the tree. Although dead,
it will not decay or lose strength while the outer layers are
intact. A composite of hollow, needlelike cellulose fibers bound
together by a chemical glue called lignin, it is in many ways
as strong as steel. A piece 12" long and 1" by 2"
in cross section set vertically can support a weight of twenty
tons! |
Leaves make food for the tree
And this tells us much about their shapes.
For example, the narrow needles of a Douglasfir can expose
as much as three acres of chlorophyll surface to the sun.
The lobes, leaflets and jagged edges
of many broad leaves have their uses, too. They help evaporate
the water used in food-building, reduce wind resistance —
even provide "drip tips" to shed rain that, left
standing, could decay the leaf.
